Your phone makes calls and your modem makes calls just like your phone does.
A call is a call, whether it's the phone or the modem.
When your Modem calls our system, our system answers the phone. It is a call over the phone company circuits, nothing more. 1USA doesn't "drop" calls. The Phone Company drops the calls.
9,600 (9.6k) is the speed of a Voice phonecall.
The speed that Verizon guarantees to the FCC is 9,600 baud. This is 9.6k in k's.
They do not guarantee any faster speeds.
The national average Modem speed is 44,000 to 53,300 (44k to 53k) Much more than what the FCC requires the phone companies to support.
Locating a bad phone connection isn't hard, but takes some time.
Start at the computer, the inside wiring, down to the DMark box on your house, the telephone pole, and out to the Central Office that services your neighborhood.
If you pay Verizon $4 to $6 per month extra for "inside wiring" repair, then they can repair anything outside the house as well as inside the house. You can call Verizon to subscribe to that service, then a few days later call for a repair, then a week later you can call back again discontinue the service if you want.
Here's what the Verizon Lineman should check for, when they show up:
(Follow the repairman around with a pen, and write down the answers)
AC Voltage: ____
Ring Voltage: ____
DC Voltage: ____
Noise 0 to 2 (3 or higher is unsat) : ____
Stress Test 0 to 20db. (34 is unsat) : ____
Power Influence: 60 to 80 is satisfactory, prefer 80 : ____
Loop Current should be 23ma or higher. 20ma (milliamps) is unsat. : ____
If you are in or around Berks County PA: If you don't have verizon's "Inside repair service", you may hire an "Inside wiring expert", his name is Ernie Ressler, at 610-775-1966 He charges $55 per hour, and is excellent.
For other areas: Look in the Yellow Pages under Telephones.
BarryZ